Acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS; EC 4.1.3.18) is the first enzyme that catalyzes the biochemical synthesis of the branched chain amino acids valine, leucine and isoleucine (Singh B. K., 1999 Biosynthesis of valine, leucine and isoleucine in: Singh B. K. (Ed) Plant amino acids. Marcel Dekker Inc. New York, N.Y. Pg 227-247). AHAS is the site of action of four structurally diverse herbicide families including the sulfonylureas (LaRossa R A and Falco S C, 1984 Trends Biotechnol. 2:158-161), the imidazolinones (Shaner et al., 1984 Plant Physiol. 76:545-546), the triazolopyrimidines (Subramanian and Gerwick, 1989 Inhibition of acetolactate synthase by triazolopyrimidines in (ed) Whitaker J R, Sonnet P E Biocatalysis in agricultural biotechnology. ACS Symposium Series, American Chemical Society. Washington, D.C. Pg 277-288), and the pyrimidyloxybenzoates (Subramanian et al., 1990 Plant Physiol 94: 239-244.). Imidazolinone and sulfonylurea herbicides are widely used in modern agriculture due to their effectiveness at very low application rates and relative non-toxicity in animals. By inhibiting AHAS activity, these families of herbicides prevent further growth and development of susceptible plants including many weed species. Several examples of commercially available imidazolinone herbicides are PURSUIT® (imazethapyr), SCEPTER® (imazaquin) and ARSENAL® (imazapyr). Examples of sulfonylurea herbicides are chlorsulfuron, metsulfuron methyl, sulfometuron methyl, chlorimuron ethyl, thifensulfuron methyl, tribenuron methyl, bensulfuron methyl, nicosulfuron, ethametsulfuron methyl, rimsulfuron, triflusulfuron methyl, triasulfuron, primisulfuron methyl, cinosulfuron, amidosulfuron, fluzasulfuron, imazosulfuron, pyrazosulfuron ethyl and halosulfuron.
Due to their high effectiveness and low-toxicity, imidazolinone herbicides are favored for application by spraying over the top of a wide area of vegetation. The ability to spray an herbicide over the top of a wide range of vegetation decreases the costs associated with plantation establishment and maintenance and decreases the need for site preparation prior to use of such chemicals. Spraying over the top of a desired tolerant species also results in the ability to achieve maximum yield potential of the desired species due to the absence of competitive species. However, the ability to use such spray-over techniques is dependent upon the presence of imidazolinone resistant species of the desired vegetation in the spray over area.
Among the major agricultural crops, some leguminous species such as soybean are naturally resistant to imidazolinone herbicides due to their ability to rapidly metabolize the herbicide compounds (Shaner and Robinson, 1985 Weed Sci. 33:469-471). Other crops such as corn (Newhouse et al., 1992 Plant Physiol. 100:882-886) and rice (Barrette et al., 1989 Crop Safeners for Herbicides, Academic Press New York, pp. 195-220) are somewhat susceptible to imidazolinone herbicides. The differential sensitivity to the imidazolinone herbicides is dependent on the chemical nature of the particular herbicide and differential metabolism of the compound from a toxic to a non-toxic form in each plant (Shaner et al., 1984 Plant Physiol. 76:545-546; Brown et al., 1987 Pestic. Biochem. Physiol. 27:24-29). Other plant physiological differences such as absorption and translocation also play an important role in sensitivity (Shaner and Robinson, 1985 Weed Sci. 33:469-471).
Crop cultivars resistant to imidazolinones, sulfonylureas and triazolopyrimidines have been successfully produced using seed, microspore, pollen, and callus mutagenesis in Zea mays, Arabidopsis thaliana, Brassica napus, Glycine max, and Nicotiana tabacum (Sebastian, et al., 1989 Crop Sci. 29:1403-1408; Swanson et al., 1989 Theor. Appl. Genet. 78:525-530; Newhouse et al., 1991 Theor. Appl. Genet. 83:65-70; Sathasivan et al., 1991 Plant Physiol. 97:1044-1050; Mourand et al., 1993 J. Heredity 84: 91-96). In all cases, a single, partially dominant nuclear gene conferred resistance. Four imidazolinone resistant wheat plants were also previously isolated following seed mutagenesis of Triticum aestivum L. cv Fidel (Newhouse et al., 1992 Plant Physiol. 100:882-886). Inheritance studies confirmed that a single, partially dominant gene conferred resistance. Based on allelic studies, the authors concluded that the mutations in the four identified lines were located at the same locus. One of the Fidel cultivar resistance genes was designated FS-4 (Newhouse et al., 1992 Plant Physiol. 100:882-886).
Computer-based modeling of the three dimensional conformation of the AHAS-inhibitor complex predicts several amino acids in the proposed inhibitor binding pocket as sites where induced mutations would likely confer selective resistance to imidazolinones (Ott et al., 1996 J. Mol. Biol. 263:359-368) Wheat plants produced with some of these rationally designed mutations in the proposed binding sites of the AHAS enzyme have in fact exhibited specific resistance to a single class of herbicides (Ott et al., 1996 J. Mol. Biol. 263:359-368).
Plant resistance to imidazolinone herbicides has also been reported in a number of patents. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,761,373, 5,331,107, 5,304,732, 6,211,438, 6,211,439 and 6,222,100 generally describe the use of an altered AHAS gene to elicit herbicide resistance in plants, and specifically discloses certain imidazolinone resistant corn lines. U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,659 discloses plants exhibiting herbicide resistance possessing mutations in at least one amino acid in one or more conserved regions. The mutations described therein encode either cross-resistance for imidazolinones and sulfonylureas or sulfonylurea-specific resistance, but imidazolinone-specific resistance is not described. Additionally, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,731,180 and 5,767,361 discuss an isolated gene having a single amino acid substitution in a wild-type monocot AHAS amino acid sequence that results in imidazolinone-specific resistance.
To date, the prior art has not described imidazolinone resistant wheat plants containing more than one altered AHAS gene. Nor has the prior art described imidazolinone resistant wheat plants containing mutations on genomes other than the genome from which the FS-4 gene is derived. Therefore, what is needed in the art is the identification of imidazolinone resistance genes from additional genomes. What are also needed in the art are wheat plants having increased resistance to herbicides such as imidazolinone and containing more than one altered AHAS gene. Also needed are methods for controlling weed growth in the vicinity of such wheat plants. These compositions and methods would allow for the use of spray over techniques when applying herbicides to areas containing wheat plants.